Dubai real estate rules, 2024 to October 2026: a broker's timeline

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A broker who stepped away from Dubai at the start of 2024 and came back in October 2026 would find the same registration law and the same transfer desk, and a long list of things around them that did not exist before. There is a ten-year sector strategy with numeric targets, a rental index that rates buildings, a programme for first-time buyers, a tokenisation pilot now in its second phase, two laws for the firms that build and design, a federal law on money laundering with heavier penalties, national rules on marketing calls, and a shared housing regime whose compliance window runs into 2027.

This guide is the map, not the territory. It lists each change in date order, names the instrument or the announcement, says who it touches and gives its status, and attributes every item to the official release or the press report it was read in. It describes the position as read in October 2026. It gives one short passage per item and stops there: the detail of each scheme, and the steps a firm follows under it, belong to longer single-subject pieces. Where a release leaves a date or a number out, the gap is named instead of filled.

Dubai Media Office release of 29 October 2024; White & Case alert of 6 November 2025; The National, 7 October 2026.

How to read the timeline

Four words describe status in what follows. "In force" means the source gives a date from which the rule applies. "Transition" means the rule applies but those it covers have a stated period to bring themselves into line. "Pilot" means the authority itself calls the scheme a test. "Programme" means a strategy or a service with no penalty attached, which a broker meets as a target, a tool or a client benefit and not as an obligation.

The instruments also come from different levels, and a rule belongs to the level that made it. The strategy, the rental index, the first-time buyer programme, the tokenisation pilot, the two professional laws and the shared housing regime are Dubai's. The telemarketing resolutions and the money laundering law are federal: they apply across the United Arab Emirates, Dubai included.

The table gives the sequence. The sections after it take the items one at a time.

August 2024: federal rules on marketing calls

The oldest item on the list is the one that reaches a brokerage's phones. Gulf Business reported on 10 July 2024 that the federal Cabinet had adopted two resolutions on telemarketing, published on 28 June 2024 and effective on 27 August 2024, which is 60 days after publication. Cabinet Resolution 56 of 2024 sets out the obligations and Cabinet Resolution 57 of 2024 the violations and administrative penalties.

According to that report, the rules apply to all companies licensed in the United Arab Emirates, including those in free zones. The report does not single out real estate, so a brokerage is covered as any licensed company is, and not by a clause of its own. A company needs prior approval to carry out telemarketing. It must call from a local number supplied by a licensed telecom provider and registered under its commercial licence, and must not use numbers that the licensed company does not own or has not registered. It must record marketing calls and tell the consumer so. It must train its staff on the national Do Not Call register, check that register before a campaign, and leave registered numbers alone.

The same report gives the fines of Resolution 57 for two of the violations. Telemarketing without prior approval costs AED 75,000 for a first offence, AED 100,000 for a second and AED 150,000 for a third. Inadequate training of agents costs AED 10,000, AED 25,000 and AED 50,000 in the same order. A worked example, on the assumption that one company commits the first violation three times: the three fines add up to AED 325,000. The report does not give the permitted calling hours, the penalties for individuals or the body that enforces the rules, and those points are left open here. Status: in force since 27 August 2024.

October 2024: the Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033

On 29 October 2024 the Government of Dubai Media Office published the launch of the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033, announced by the Director General of the Dubai Land Department at a media gathering. The strategy is a plan with targets, not a rule: nothing in it obliges a broker to do anything. It matters because later announcements cite it as their reason. The registration platform of September 2026, for one, is linked to it by its release.

The release lists the targets for 2033. Real estate's contribution to gross domestic product is to double to approximately AED 73 billion. The home ownership rate is to reach 33 per cent. Real estate transactions are to grow by 70 per cent. The market's value is to reach AED 1 trillion. The value of real estate portfolios is to expand twenty times, to AED 20 billion. For scale, the same release gives the figures of the first nine months of 2024: more than 163,000 transactions worth more than AED 544 billion, with investments above AED 376 billion.

Six ten-year programmes sit under the strategy, as the release names them: transparency and global marketing; data and governance; flexible urban planning; real estate investment funds; affordable housing and real estate sustainability; and a programme to enhance Emirati competitiveness in the sector. The release also mentions the Dubai Real Estate Brokers Programme and the Real Estate Evolution Space initiative. Status: a programme with a 2033 horizon.

January 2025: the Smart Rental Index

The Dubai Land Department presented the Smart Rental Index 2025 at a press conference at its headquarters, according to the Dubai Media Office release of 2 January 2025. The index covers all residential areas of the emirate, including special development zones and free zones. Commercial and industrial indexes are announced as planned, without a date.

What is new is the unit of measurement. The release describes a classification that rates each building on its technical and structural characteristics, the quality of its finishes and maintenance, its location and spatial value, and its services and facilities. The official quoted in the release says the index "relies on artificial intelligence technologies and a building classification system". The release does not publish a grading scale.

The index does not rewrite the law on rent increases. The release of 2 January 2025, re-read in October 2026, says increases are applied "in accordance with Decree No. (34) of 2013" and gives only the two ends of the scale: 0 per cent for rents "less than 10% below the average market rent", and up to 20 per cent for rents that, in its wording, "exceed the average by more than 40%". It does not give the bands in between. Both the number and the last phrase differ from the decree as published on the Dubai Legislation Portal, which is Decree No. (43) of 2013 and which reserves the 20 per cent ceiling for a rent more than 40 per cent below the average rental value; the decree's text is the rule, and the release is quoted here only as the announcement. The release adds that registered rental contracts passed 900,000 in 2024, up 8 per cent on the year before. It gives no date of entry into effect. Status: launched for homes; the other indexes are pending.

March 2025 to February 2026: the tokenisation pilot

The Dubai Land Department announced the pilot phase of its Real Estate Tokenisation Project on 19 March 2025, in a release on its own site. The project converts property title deeds into digital tokens recorded on a blockchain, so that one property may be held in shares by several investors. The partners named are the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and the Dubai Future Foundation. The department describes itself in that release as the first real estate registration entity in the Middle East to apply tokenisation to title deeds, a claim that is its own. It also projects that the tokenised market will reach AED 60 billion by 2033, which it presents as 7 per cent of Dubai's total real estate transactions. That figure is a forecast by the department, not a measurement.

The second dated marker comes from the regulator. On 19 February 2026 the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority published a consumer and marketplace alert updating the pilot. It says the initial phase is complete and that a second phase has begun: controlled testing and evaluation under close oversight, coordinated with the Land Department, which covers additional functions including secondary-market mechanisms. The alert says those mechanisms are being assessed. It does not say that trading is open, and it gives no date for a wider launch.

The alert is also a warning about marketing. It states that some entities may be citing the pilot in promotional material without the necessary approvals, or implying a role beyond what has been authorised. It recalls that, under Dubai Law No. 4 of 2022 and Cabinet Resolution No. 111 of 2022, any entity offering, marketing or facilitating tokenised real estate products in or from Dubai must hold the appropriate licence or approval, and it refers investors to the authority's public register. The alert names no firm and no rulebook. Status: pilot, second phase, with further updates promised and undated.

April 2025: property advertising under daily monitoring

The rule that a property advertisement needs a permit is older than this timeline. What changed in the period is how compliance is watched. On 24 April 2025 the Dubai Land Department published the first results of its Real Estate Advertising Governance Platform, which it says was launched at the GITEX technology show in 2024. According to the release, the platform had monitored more than 279,000 advertisements since its launch on marketing platforms such as Property Finder, Dubizzle and Bayut, the three it names, and 29 per cent of the monitored listings had been modified automatically using artificial intelligence. The release does not explain what the modification consists of.

The official quoted in the release, from the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's control department, says the platform lets the agency "monitor advertisements more accurately and efficiently" and describes the monitoring as daily. The release also recalls the Madmoun service inside the Trakheesi permit system: each advertising permit carries a QR code, and all real estate companies must display it on every advertisement, visual or written, so that a reader can verify the agency's approval.

The release publishes no count of violations and no fines, and it does not name the circular it enforces. Status: in operation.

The First-Time Home Buyer Programme

A date is harder to give here, because the Dubai Land Department's programme page, last updated on 7 October 2026, describes the scheme without saying when it opened. This guide therefore gives its terms as that page states them and leaves the launch date as an open point.

The programme is open to residents of the United Arab Emirates of any nationality, aged 18 or over, who do not currently own a freehold residential property in Dubai. The home must be priced below AED 5 million. The page lists the benefits: priority access to units in new launches by participating developers, preferential prices on selected off-plan units, flexible payment plans, interest-free instalment plans for the department's registration fee through eligible credit cards, and better mortgage rates and fees from participating banks. It counts 21 developers and five banks.

Registration is done on the department's website or in the Dubai REST application. An eligible applicant receives a confirmation email with a QR code, which stays valid until a property is bought and registered. There is no charge to apply, the page says, and the benefits may be used with one developer and one bank only.

This is the one item in the timeline that touches how a Land Department fee is paid. None of the pages read for this guide announces a change to the level of the department's fees between 2024 and October 2026. That is a statement about the pages read, not a finding that no fee changed. Status: open, with terms as updated on 7 October 2026.

July and October 2025: laws for contractors and engineers

Two laws of 2025 are aimed at the firms that build and design, and reach a developer through the companies it hires.

Khaleej Times reported on 12 July 2025, citing the Dubai Media Office, that the Ruler of Dubai had issued Law No. 7 of 2025 to regulate the contracting sector. As reported, the law applies to all contractors in Dubai, including those in special development zones and in free zones such as the Dubai International Financial Centre, and excludes airport infrastructure. It creates the Contracting Activities Regulation and Development Committee, chaired by a representative of Dubai Municipality, and an electronic registry of contractors linked to the Invest in Dubai platform. Contractors may not subcontract without prior approval. Fines run from AED 1,000 to AED 100,000 and may double for a repeat within one year, up to AED 200,000; suspension for up to one year is also listed. Existing contractors have one year from the law taking effect to regularise their status, which the committee may extend by another year. The report does not give the date of entry into force.

The second law was announced by the Dubai Media Office on 5 October 2025. Law No. 14 of 2025 regulates engineering consultancy offices in the emirate. An office must be registered with Dubai Municipality. A branch of an office based elsewhere in the country needs at least three consecutive years of experience, and a branch of a foreign office at least ten. The prohibited acts the release lists include contracting with unlicensed companies for consultancy work. Fines reach AED 100,000. A written appeal may be filed within 30 days of notification and is decided within 30 days. The law takes effect six months after publication in the Official Gazette, annuls Local Order No. 89 of 1994, and gives offices one year from its entry into force to regularise.

Neither source gives a Gazette date, so neither transition can be dated exactly from the texts read. A worked example for the engineering law, on the assumption that the Gazette published it in October 2025, the month of the announcement: six months lead to April 2026 and the regularisation year to April 2027. With a later publication, both dates move by the same number of months. Status: both in transition.

October 2025: the federal money laundering law

The change with the heaviest penalties is federal. In an alert dated 6 November 2025, the law firm White & Case describes a new law on combating money laundering, terrorism financing and the financing of proliferation, which it cites as Federal Law No. 10 of 2025. According to the alert, the law was published in the Official Gazette on 30 September 2025 and took effect on 14 October 2025, and it repeals Federal Law No. 20 of 2018 as amended.

The alert lists the main shifts. Knowledge that funds are illicit may be inferred from objective circumstances, and liability may arise where a person knew or where it would have been reasonable for them to have known. The predicate offences now include direct and indirect tax evasion and the financing of proliferation. The text expressly covers virtual assets. The Financial Intelligence Unit may suspend a suspected transaction for up to 10 working days without prior notice, and may freeze suspected funds held by financial institutions, by designated non-financial businesses and professions, or by virtual asset service providers for 30 days, a period that can be extended.

On penalties, the alert gives a fine of AED 5 million to AED 100 million for a legal entity where a principal offence is committed on its behalf, or the value of the criminal property if that is greater, against AED 500,000 to AED 50 million under the previous law. The lower bound is therefore ten times what it was and the upper bound twice. A regulated entity that lacks a required licence or authorisation faces AED 200,000 to AED 10 million, against a previous ceiling of AED 5 million. The alert also describes liability for managers.

The alert, as read, does not mention real estate brokers by name; it refers to designated non-financial businesses and professions in connection with freezing orders, and this guide does not go beyond it on who falls in that category. It says new executive regulations were expected shortly and that Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2019 stayed in force until then. Whether those regulations have since been issued was not established from the pages read. Status: in force since 14 October 2025, with the implementing rules an open point.

September 2026: a registration platform and shared housing

Two announcements fall within five days of each other.

On 3 September 2026 the Dubai Media Office reported the launch by the Dubai Land Department of its Initial Registration platform. It joins three tasks in one digital workflow: registering a developer's project, registering the sales made in it, and managing the escrow account. According to the release, artificial intelligence reads the documents submitted, and transactions that meet the rules can be approved on submission. A view called Project 360 brings a project's records together. The release states no fee, no processing time and no legal basis. The agency's chief executive is quoted calling the platform "an investment in the real estate sector's efficiency". Status: launched, with no rollout calendar published.

The shared housing rules took effect on 8 September 2026, according to The National's report of 7 October 2026, which covers the guide issued by Dubai Municipality. The report says more than 40 areas are approved for shared housing and that six property types are eligible. Each occupant must have at least 5 square metres, and a permit is required, obtained through the Build in Dubai platform. Labour accommodation is excluded and has its own legislation. Fines run from AED 500 to AED 500,000, and a repeat within a year can double the penalty, up to AED 1 million. The report names owners, property managers and leasing companies as those concerned. It does not give the number of the law, and the start date used here is the one it reports; other coverage was not compared for this guide. Status: in force, in transition.

What is already set for 2027

Only one date in 2027 is fixed by a source read for this guide. The National reports that those covered by the shared housing rules have one year from 8 September 2026 to comply, which places the end of that window in September 2027.

Three other periods may run into 2027, and none of them can be pinned to a day from the texts read. The contracting law gives existing contractors a year from its entry into force, with a possible second year. The engineering consultancy law gives a year after an entry into force that itself comes six months after Gazette publication. The second phase of the tokenisation pilot has no end date, and the regulator says only that updates will follow. The commercial and industrial rental indexes announced in January 2025 are likewise undated.

Further out, the horizon is 2033: the year of the strategy's targets and of the Land Department's AED 60 billion projection for tokenised property.

A date of announcement, a date of entry into force and the end of a grace period are three different dates, and the releases seldom give all three.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →